Underlining the continuing growth of data centres in sub-Saharan Africa are recent announcements involving Raxio Group in Tanzania and Digital Parks Africa in South Africa.
African data centre operator Raxio Group already has a presence in Uganda and Ethiopia. It has now announced plans for Raxio Tanzania, described as the first carrier-neutral, privately-owned Tier III data centre in Dar es Salaam.
As well as full redundancy and maximized uptime, optimized power consumption and energy efficiency are promised for the multi-megawatt facility in what is described as the second-largest telecoms market in East Africa. Tanzania is already connected by three subsea cables, with another due next year.
The multi-megawatt colocation facility, meeting Uptime Tier III specifications, is set to be commissioned in 2023 as are Raxio DRC, Raxio Ivory Coast and Raxio Mozambique.
Meanwhile, wholesale data centre infrastructure service provider Digital Parks Africa (DPA), which already offers 100 percent wholesale colocation services in its facilities in South Africa and Zambia, has announced plans to grow its Samrand data centre campus in Centurion, South Africa, to 22MVA.
The announced expansion follows an investment of approximately R500 million (US $33.7 million) to meet growing demand in South Africa.
According to the Data Centre Dynamics website, once it is completed the facility will offer 9,000 square metres of white space and will have undergone Uptime Tier IV construction certification. Excellent redundancy and uptime of 99.999 percent are also promised thanks to its energy-efficient backup power system.
Much more data centre activity is expected in South Africa, the biggest data centre market in the region. However, deals in other countries are bringing data centres to many other sub-Saharan countries, not least thanks to the ongoing arrival of subsea cable systems, a trend that is likely to continue.
